Trump Advisor Larry Fink off MoMA's Board!

on 22 February 2017.

February 17, 2017

It has come to our attention that a Trump economic advisor sits on the board of the Museum of Modern Art. The name of this advisor is Larry Fink. He is the co-founder and CEO of Blackrock Inc, the largest financial company in the world. Blackrock barely existed before 2008. Today it manages 5.1 trillion dollars of assets. If you hold any kind of debt to any bank, chances are that its traded by Blackrock. The firm is deeply invested in Americans—and especially students to remain in permanent debt. Fink is also on the board of NYU.

Fink is not in Bannon’s camp. He’s a liberal. He was talked about as a potential Clinton treasury secretary. But now he’s on Trump’s team. And because Trump is waging a war of hate and lies against Muslims, Immigrants, women, LGBTQ, disabled, and the planet itself, one cannot reasonably advise or do any kind of business with this regime. To advise this regime is to normalize White Supremacy.

There is a long history of activism at MoMA. In fact, tonight’s free museum entrance was brought to you by the Art Worker’s coalition protests decades ago. So in this tradition, we are calling for MoMA to change its behavior.

No More Normalizing Trump.

We are calling for Larry Fink to be kicked off the board as a sign to your public that you care for our values of human dignity.

MoMA!

Why are you normalizing this regime by having a Trump advisor on your board?

Ritual Rebranding of the David H. Koch Plaza on the Day of its Dedication

As the world prepares to converge on NYC in a mass call for Climate Justice, the Metropolitan Museum of Art will honor David H. Koch, a 4-star general in the dirty energy industry’s war against planet earth. The public space and two grand fountains in front of the Met’s facade will be renamed as the David H. Koch Plaza, following an extensive renovation.

The people will be present at the dedication on Tuesday, September 9th to stand in resistance. The celebration of this philanthropic abuse of the commons cannot pass unchallenged. People are rallying to demand sustainable policies for our culture and the ecosystem.

These fountains are boiling. The policies of The Patron contribute to the melting of the ice caps and the rising of the seas.

We invite you to join a ritual cleansing of the Place Formerly Known As David H. Koch Plaza. In a durational ceremony, we will call upon the energies of resistance, chanting and making offerings, and will collectively rename and rebrand the Plaza.

At 10:00 pm last night, members of Gulf Ultra Luxury Faction (G.U.L.F.) joined by the OWS Illuminator occupied the facade of Guggenheim Museum in Uptown Manhattan for over 40 minutes. G.U.L.F. rebranded the Guggenheim’s flagship museum in protest of complicity at the ill-treatment and economic exploitation of migrant workers in Abu Dhabi who are beginning to build the new Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim on Saadiyat Island (aka ‘Island of Happiness’). G.U.L.F.’s act of messaging solidarity follows recent reports from Human Rights Watch, as well as investigative findings from members of the Gulf Labor Coalition (some of whom overlap with G.U.L.F.) who have just returned from a fact-finding mission in Abu Dhabi where where they visited several worker camps and spoke with workers. They confirmed a reality that is the opposite of happy: multiple labor violations, generated by a system built on human suffering and debt bondage.

Last night, G.U.L.F. renewed the call on the Guggenheim to own up to its responsibility as a leading cultural, educational and art institution, and not take economic advantage of the workers seeking the ‘Gulf Dream’. Workers should not be caught in a debt spiral where they must work for years on building the museum only to pay the fees that brought them to Abu Dhabi in the first place. Guggenheim has a choice here. It must refuse to lend its cultural capital to build the ‘Island of Happiness’ where art and luxury mask and maintain a racialized exploitative labor regime, while using its PR department and those of its partners to hide the facts and mislead the public. Unless the Guggenheim changes course with the new museum in Abu Dhabi, G.U.L.F. will continue to remind the Guggenheim that their brand is: “1% Global Museum.”

Winter Holiday Camp: Bringing Crisis to the Ministry of Culture

on 11 December 2013.

Minister of CultureBogdan Zdrojewski

We, a group of artists and activists, the audience of the Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw, turn to the Minister of Culture and National Heritage because we recognize that the institutions entrusted with the protection of artistic expression are in crisis.

The main points of crisis at CCA are well known. Employees are in a years long dispute with the management: director Fabio Cavallucci, vice-director Joanna Szwajcowska, and vice-director Adam Wroblewski. The Solidarity union has given voice to this situation publicly in a number of letters. Local and international artists have also called attention to an abuse of power. Numerous articles have appeared in the press.

Recent developments at the CCA have further complicated the situation. We interpret the blasphemy trial of artist Jacek Markiewicz and curator Marek Goździewski from the British British Polish Polish exhibition as an attack on freedom of expression that has resulted in pressure on the Ministry and the management of CCA from the right.

In this situation, we lend our unequivocal support to the entire community and institution of CCA. Given this impossible situation in which an historically important art institution finds itself, we think it is imperative for you to join the CCA, to strengthen rather than dilute artistic freedom, and to stand firm against the forces of violence and intimidation that seek to silence voices that cause them discomfort rather than engaging in dialogue. Culture is the most valuable and often vulnerable asset in any society. History shows that when it is used as a political target, societies at a crossroad march along the path in the opposite direction from freedom.

Therefore, we petition the Ministry of Culture to support the CCA in their mission to promote artistic freedom.